An annual cleanup of Greater Cincinnati on Saturday turned up something someone didn't intend to throw away - $30,000 worth of cocaine.

Volunteers working on the Great American Cleanup 2002 found the illegal drugs hidden under some garbage in a vacant lot on Whiteman Street in the West End, said Linda Holterhoff, executive director for Keep Cincinnati Beautiful.

They handed it over to a police officer who was working with them, and the officer took it to the police department, she said.

It amounted to about 10 ounces of cocaine, Cincinnati Police Sgt. Brian Meyer said. Street dealers usually hide the bulk of their product somewhere, he said, but this was more than a street dealer would be expected to hide.

Dealers think that no one will look under a pile of trash, Holterhoff said, but added, ''We're on a cleanup spree, so they'd better watch out.''

The lot at 435 Whiteman had become a neighborhood trash dump. Volunteers pulled ''a mountain'' of trash from the lot and other lots in the area, Holterhoff said.

They also removed 983 tires stuffed into an abandoned three-story row house and small garage there.

''It was a real fire hazard and a health hazard. It would have burned for months if it had gone up,'' she said.

It would have cost the city up to $4,000 to dispose of that many tires, she said, but the Hamilton County Solid Waste Management District did it at no charge for the cleanup day.

The cleanup and projects like it attracted at least 3,300 volunteers from Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, who worked in 71 groups. As of Sunday, when only about 50 of the groups had reported their totals, the cleanup had gathered 441,000 pounds of trash and 3,700 illegally dumped tires, said Heather Harlow, communications manager for Keep Cincinnati Beautiful.

She hoped to have final numbers sometime this afternoon.

Last year, 5,431 volunteers picked up between 330,000 and 384,000 pounds of trash and 2,857 tires.

''It's amazing how may people are willing to give up a Saturday morning to pick up other people's trash,'' Harlow said. ''That's why these folks are to be patted on the back.''

The cleanup coincided with an annual outreach day for HOPE Worldwide, and about 500 members of that International Churches of Christ charity helped clean up the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. That made a big difference - normally only about 20 residents from that neighborhood volunteer, Holterhoff said.

In most areas, rain held off until after the volunteers were finished working, and that helped the turnout, Keep Cincinnati Beautiful spokeswoman Susan McDonald said.

''It was so great to see so many enthusiastic people from all areas of the city just come together for one morning,'' she said. ''It was really a great event to help bring the city together.''

Keep Cincinnati Beautiful sponsors and organizes the cleanup day as part of the nationwide Keep America Beautiful campaign and cleanup day.

Publication date: 04-29-02